FDA approves updated COVID-19 shots with limits for some kids and adults

A new study found that Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander people had the highest rate of stroke among people from other race and ethnic groups, with a rate more than three times higher than that of white people. The study is published on August 27, 2025, in Neurology.

Will you get a COVID-19 vaccine? That has become a complicated question for many people.

A novel intervention aimed at helping adolescents with sickle cell disease maintain hydroxyurea treatment plans shows promising results at improving their quality of life, a new Columbia University School of Nursing study finds. These findings offer insight into methods that mitigate the effects of sickle cell disease. The study, "HABIT Efficacy Trial Intervention Improves Elements of General and Disease-Specific Quality of Life in Youth with Sickle Cell Disease," is published in Pediatric Blood & Cancer.

Cancer cells are notoriously flexible, taking on new features as they move around the body. Many of these changes are due to epigenetic modifications, which influence how DNA is packaged, and not due to mutations in the DNA itself. Such modifications are difficult to target for cancer therapy because they are reversible and can flip on and off.

Short bowel syndrome (SBS) is one of the most challenging conditions in gastroenterology, affecting patients who have lost significant portions of their small intestine due to surgery, disease or congenital abnormalities. Patients with SBS often struggle with chronic malnutrition and depend heavily on parenteral (intravenous) nutrition, which can severely impact their quality of life and impose a substantial burden on health care systems.

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are the most common type of sarcoma, often driven by mutations in the KIT or PDGFRA genes. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) like imatinib have been the cornerstone of treatment, but most patients eventually develop resistance due to secondary mutations, leading to disease progression and limited survival.

Peptidyl-arginine deiminase 2 (PAD2) enzyme converts arginine amino acid residues in histone proteins into citrulline groups and promotes tumor cell proliferation in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, report researchers from the Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan. Administration of PAD inhibitors reduced PRUNE1 expression and suppressed tumor cell proliferation in both pancreatic cancer cell lines and mouse models. The study thus lays the foundation for future anticancer therapies targeting PAD2 enzymatic activity.

As much as 80% of young people from the lowest social levels drop out of sports during adolescence. "Two-thirds from the highest socio-economic class drop out, three-quarters from the middle class, while from the lowest class, 4 out of 5 drop out during adolescence," says Erik Grasaas at UiA.

U.S. regulators approved updated COVID-19 shots Wednesday but limited their use for many Americans—and removed one of the two vaccines available for young children.

A pioneering study by researchers from Finland and the UK has demonstrated for the first time that myocardial infarction may be an infectious disease. This discovery challenges the conventional understanding of the pathogenesis of myocardial infarction and opens new avenues for treatment, diagnostics, and even vaccine development.

The eye, like most organs, has an intricate plumbing system. Pressure builds when drainage is impaired, and this condition—glaucoma—can cause irreversible vision loss. Certain popular anti-inflammatory eye medications that contain steroids can in some cases compound the problem, although scientists have been at a loss to understand why.

Researchers at the Nanoscience Initiative at the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC) have made a breakthrough in the fight against viral diseases.

A new study by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine brings hope for a more personalized approach to treating estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer, the most common type of this cancer. The team identified a biomarker in preclinical ER+ breast cancer models that indicates that the tumor is more likely to respond to treatment with CDK4/6 inhibitors.

Researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have found that certain lipids (fats) in obesity-causing foods also cause asthma-like lung inflammation. The findings suggest that in addition to modifying dietary choices, certain existing drugs could be repurposed to help treat this type of asthma.

A new survey-based study suggests that the "unhappiness hump"—a widely documented rise in worry, stress, and depression with age that peaks in midlife and then declines—may have disappeared, perhaps due to declining mental health among younger people. David Blanchflower of Dartmouth College, U.S., and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One.

Insomnia patients taking cannabis-based medical products reported better quality sleep after up to 18 months of treatment, according to a study published in PLOS Mental Health by Arushika Aggarwal from Imperial College London, U.K., and colleagues.

Breathwork while listening to music may induce a blissful state in practitioners, accompanied by changes in blood flow to emotion-processing brain regions, according to a study published in the open-access journal PLOS One by Amy Amla Kartar from the Colasanti Lab in the Department of Clinical Neuroscience at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, U.K., and colleagues.

A new study of young adults has strongly linked better sleep quality with better mental well-being, with fruit and vegetable consumption and physical activity also strongly associated with psychological well-being. Perhaps surprisingly, the findings also suggest that boosting fruit and vegetable intake could potentially help mitigate the effects on well-being after a poor night's sleep.